Ministry has too few personnel to monitor foreign workers: Official

News Desk

The Jakarta Post

Jakarta |
Wed, April 19, 2017 | 01:03 pm

Several women arrested by the Immigration Office are shown to the media at the West Jakarta Immigration Office on Jan. 7. The office arrested 20 women from China, Vietnam and Thailand for alleged violations of their stay permits.
(Antara/Muhammad Adimaja)

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The Manpower Ministry has too few personnel to monitor foreigners who are working without the appropriate permits in many parts of the country, the ministry’s foreign labor control director Wisnu Pramono said on Monday.

“We have only 1,923 inspectors out of the ideal number of 4,200 inspectors,” Wisnu told The Jakarta Post after a hearing with the House of Representatives in Jakarta.

Foreigners who are to be employed in Indonesia are required to obtain expatriate employment permits (IMTA) and stay permits (ITAS), Wisnu said, adding that those permits should be obtained before they enter Indonesian territory.

From about 74,000 foreign workers who were employed in Indonesia in 2016, the ministry found 1,324 problem cases: 794 people working without an IMTA and 530 people who had misused their working permits, the official said on Tuesday.

He said he believed the number of foreign employment cases was higher than the data held by the ministry because of the shortage of personnel to monitor the foreigners.

Wisnu said his office had issued recommendations to the immigration offices to deport foreign workers who were not equipped with complete documents.

Since 2015, the foreign workers are required to have an IMTA before they get an ITAS, said Wisnu, adding that the potential workers could use Skype to interact with employers before deciding to work in Indonesia and so reduce the numbers of various violations against the regulations. (dra/bbn)